Intensive Care Unit

General Campus - The Ottawa Hospital - Ottawa, ON

The design of the Ottawa Hospital’s General Campus Intensive Care Unit is centered on patient-care. Conceived as two independent 16 bed pods, each featuring 14 single rooms, the ICU block’s layout is a result of extensive consultation between Erskine Dredge & Associates and the dedicated healthcare professionals that work in this environment every day. The two ICU pods are mirrored about a central corridor, with large skylights, that terminates at an exterior balcony offering patients and visitors alike an opportunity for fresh air. The introduction of the light well also means that each ICU patient room is exposed to natural light, which is not only mandated by the Ontario Ministry of Health but has been proven to decrease stress, pain and analgesic medication use in post-operative patients. With the patient rooms ringing the perimeter, the various administrative and support spaces comprise the core of these ICU departments. Each pod has two nursing stations positioned at opposing corners such that at any given time all of the patient rooms are under the care of a watchful eye. This approach to planning, informed by the stakeholders, extends to the placement of the patient charting stations which allows for the nurses to stand outside of the patient’s room, behind a window, so as not to disturb them. The configuration of the individual recovery rooms speaks to the larger Intensive Care Unit’s goal of putting the patient at the very center of The Ottawa Hospital’s focus.